Oktober wird jetzt bald vorbei... SO KOMMISCH

October is over now....SO WEIRD

With the end of this upcoming week, we will be in November. My head is still spinning, and I am still trying to figure out where all the time has gone... 

But we had a fantastic week this week! 

Monday. EPIC FAILURE ON MY PART. So, I don't remember if I have said so much about the current bike that am riding. Before me, the bike was named Black Beauty, but like to name it broomstick because of the seat... it has nearly no padding and for the most part it may be an inch and half wide, maybe. Anyway, It needed some repair work done, the steering was starting to get a bit rusty, so I needed to take that apart, one of the pedals broke, the chain needed to be oiled, and the brakes tightened. ( I seem to always have brake problems). 

So I spent some time fixing the bike I took it nearly all apart oiled it up and put it back together (and I only had 2 screws left over!! ;-) ) No, everything was put back just fine, but I decided that it would be a good idea to raise the handle bars a bit, too make the ride more comfortable. So I did not problems. I proceed and tighten the brakes, oiled the chain, replaced the pedal (on a side note, I don't know why I am having all of these bike problems, maybe this is just God's way of subconsciously letting me know that my destined career is not that of a Surgeon, but of a bike repairman ;-) ). I get it all put together, and don't have any time to test ride it to make sure everything works properly, because we need to leave. So we pack up and ride up the hill toward the Buchanans. I notice that the bike is acting somewhat strange, but I didn't think anything of it, until we were going back down the hill... It turns out that I couldn't raise the handle bars as easily as I anticipated, and that I had left a gap which allowed for some wiggle room. 

This showed it self as we started to bike down the hill, the bike started to shake, so I pulled the brakes to slow me down, upon applying just the slightest pressure to the front brake the bike shook violently almost lost control and I about wrecked. The back brakes worked fine and caused no effect. Sweet! Good thing I tightened those today! Well about 20 seconds later as I pulled the back brake to slow me down, I heard a snapping sound and all the sudden the brakes didn't work. The back brake cable snapped.   And I wasn't even halfway down the hill yet... So now I am gaining speed down this hill, and if I so much as touch the brakes, the bike is going to lose control and I will wreck. Super.

 I made it back safely to the apartment, without any harm. More to show Gods matchless preserving power than any sort of skill I could possess. Needless to say we were done with the bikes for that day and spent the rest of the evening on foot. :-) The next day, I returned the handlebars to their designed height. Elder Buchanan stopped at Real and bought me a new brake cable, I installed it and ever since then the bike seems to be working really well. But stayed tuned till next week to find out what more chaos Elder Christensen can have with a bike...

Later that night, after we got back to the apartment I decided to call a few people, see if we could get a hold of anyone to meet with during the week. And I ended up texting Stephan Beck, someone who we had tried to meet with for a long time, but he cancelled a few times and then we lost contact. I just sent him a text asking him if there was anything we could do for him, and he almost immediately called me and said " Wow you asked me at the perfect time, I need help tomorrow building my Barn in Markdorf". Cool. He subsequently invited us to breakfast and to talk a bit about God. He has some really interesting ideas... He knows the bible well though. But it seems his biggest fascination is with the sections like Ezekiel 1 where Ezekiel essentially describes (what appears to be) an airplane that he sees in a vision. And other places where ancient prophets tried to describe our day. Really cool things, not so much about God though. It was interesting. 

But later that day we had a fun time in Markdorf helping build his barn, he has some land down there with sheep and chickens and a garden. He is working toward being completely self sufficient, or getting to that point. Anyway, we had a really fun time with him and helped him space out the beams for the roof. Luckily its a really small barn ( I wouldn't call it a barn personally, more like a shack but I won't hurt his pride ;-)) It was fun. A lot actually working with wood again, and having some tools back in my hand. It was good. :-) It was good and he was impressed with our desire to work and to help others. We will hopefully be able to return sometime this week and help him some more. 

Wednesday we had an Exchange with Dornbirn. I brought Elder Sharp (from Sydney Australia) here to Dornbirn and we had a good time. Yup. He is from Australia. And he knows Elder Stokes too. It's fun hearing the Australian accent again. :-) We spent the day going by on a few people before going to Institute, to hopefully meet with Mariet, who I contacted again for the first time in months only a few days earlier. Sadly she couldn't stay for us to talk with her, but she loved institute and wants to come back (the only problem is, is that she doesn't have a ride...) She wants to be baptized, but doesn't have too much of an inner drive to do so (more of, yeah sure, if it is convenient, and I am able, why not?) so we will need to talk with her some more before she can get baptized. 

Thursday, nothing overally exciting happened, except for having dinner with the Stevens family, which was delicious as always. I ate WAY TOO MUCH. Mostly with desert she made Germ Knödel, which I really like, and so I two of them and was stuffed then Sister Stevens offered me a third one. I said I was so full that I couldn't eat another. Then she teasingly/provokingly said "Elder Christensen, you don't have much time left on your mission, this might be the last time you can have real Germ Knödel". After sitting there quietly a few seconds, I took another one. :-P  I love this branch so much, I mentioned the changes that I have seen since I arrived and the relationship with the members has gotten only better. We have become members of the branch, and have such good relationships with the members.

Saturday and Sunday. These two I want to specifically mention. We spent Saturday morning doing an "Area book finding day" with the Buchanans, after which we had GMK with David, and then went to Help Jason put together his furniture. That was way too much fun. Making mistakes and having to take it apart and start over again. Afterwards he made us Chinese food... Then we had a lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, about baptism. And he accepted and really wants to be baptized on the 23rd of November! He is so great. He feels the spirit when he prays, when he is with us, and he wants to feel it stronger. He lives only a couple houses away from David, and David now has a car, so he brought him to church. He had a great time at church. 

Jasmin Trautman was also able to come, so we taught two separate investigator classes. :-) Jasmin will probably be baptized sometime in December. She can only come to church every other week with her Grandparents, but wants to be baptized. :-) So we will teach her and prepare her for baptism. :-). Later after church once the members had mostly left (we needed to wait for Elder Buchanan to finish a meeting) I sat down and started playing some Hymns. Specifically one of my current favorites "O Bleibe Herr" (Abide with me). It has 4 verses in German, sadly the English is missing the last one, which is my favorite.  Sister Trautman and Jasmin came in and we started singing together in 3 part harmony. It turns out that "O Bleibe Herr" is also Sister Trautmans favorite. :-) We have really gained a good relationships with members here, it's so cool to see. I started playing another hymn, and wasn't quite playing it with the correct style, so I got a bit of a private piano lesson from Sister Trautman. It was cool. At the beginning of my time here, that wouldn't have happened, but it has changed so much. 

Later we had lunch with the Buchanans, Barluschkes, Jason and Derick. Then we had to leave because they played card games, but that was INCREDIBLE. Jason now feels very comfortable with the ward, and has some friends. Things are just going really really well. We are seeing many miracles and wonderful things are happening. God is answering our prayers. He truly is protecting us and guiding us. Things are getting better and better. Its wonderful to see. I know that God loves us. 

Anyway, my time is now up, I wish you all a fantastic week! 

love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

It was a good week. :-)

I don't have anytime anymore to really say much, we are short on time today with much to do, but I would like to just report that the week has been really good. It came with it's usual struggles (fallen out appointments etc.) But overall it was good.

Tuesday we were able to meet with Justice and Christine as well as Jason. It was great. Justice, who has cancelled the past 5 appointments because he was called in to go work, this time told them he couldn't so that he could meet with us. He also took notes as we were talking with him. It was cool. :-) 

Later that night we met with Jason at the church and had a short but fantastic appointment with him. He told us that he had started to pray personally, and when he prayed he felt peace and confidence. SO COOL!! He likes to pray, and was excited to get the book of Mormon in Chinese. He said the closing prayer at the end of that meeting and I about cried. It was the neatest feeling ever. 

He hadn't ever prayed before we met him, we taught him how, he had done a few times personally and when he said the closing prayer... It was  SO COOL. The feeling that is. His prayer was different than the first time we met him. A bit more sincere and more real. We were supposed to go help with furniture on Thursday, but it turns out that he got the shipment date wrong and that it will be this coming Thursday. And then he got sick and couldn't come to church, but we will meet with him again this week. :-)

Other than that it has been a good week, we saw a cool miracle on Thursday when everything fell out (including back-up plans) we ended up in Friedrichshafen looking for a woman down there who had talked with the missionaries a while ago. She didn't live there anymore but while walking up and down we saw a guy outside and started talking with him. At the beginning he didn't have too much interest, but towards the end he took a Book of Mormon and said that we were welcome to come back another time. :-) That was SO NEAT. Everything fell out, and we some how wound up down there ( not really planning too) and we found him. We wouldn't have found him otherwise. Still learning patience and to trust the Lord, but I am getting better. :-)

With that, I need to end this e-mail,

I wish you all a great week!

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

Miracles!

I have VERY VERY little time, so I wish to share a few miracles that we saw this week, after a long week of difficult work. 

So, We had an exchange on Friday to Saturday, I was with Elder Thompson on exchange in Dornbirn. It went really well, and lucky for me, we were invited to eat dinner with the Stevens Family, a family that I ate with often when I was there. That was so much fun. :-) Anyway, we exchanged back on saturday, and saw the Baptism that Bregenz had. That was fun. And a fun fact was that she was talked to last year in september and took only a card, no information given, no interest shown. But was talked to again this year and this time she tried. She thought that she would never join the church and it would be useless, but she came to church one day, and felt the spirit so strong... that was the start, and now she is a new member of the church. It was neat to see. 

Later that day we were back in Ravensburg, and had nothing that we really could do, plans fell out, and we had to try something else. I decided to take the time to call some people, while Elder Wasden ( who is a pretty good artist) made a card to take to a less active member. There were so many people with whom I tried to get contact for a long time, who finally answered! That was incredible. We made SO MANY APPOINTMENTS OUT. It was incredible. 

And then, I got a call from a lady who we found about 2 and a half months ago. She called me and informed me that she and her husband wanted to come to church tomorrow, and needed the adress! I was blown away. That hsa been the hardest thing to get accomplished is get people to church. She and her husband live in Markdorf, which is 30 minutes away, and they wanted to come. SHE CALLED ME! I couldn't get a hold of her for 2 months and she spontaneously called us and said that she AND HER HUSBAND would come to church tomorrow. That was a huge miracle.

Then the next day, they didn't come. I was so sad, and couldn't focus ( I was supposed to translate, which didn't go so well) right after the closing prayer, my phone rings, and I look at the number and it was the family. I BOOKED IT out of the chapel into the hall to take the phone call. It turns out they were there, but couldn't find the church. Our church is in a building with a bunch of business offices, and they didn't recognize it. They drove up the road ( and on the same road there happens to be a Kingdom hall ( Jehovas Witnesses)) Luckily they knew that wasn't us, but not being able to find it, they drove home back to Markdorf ( I don't know why they didn't call earlier). I told them the address was number 5 but they were so sure. 

Anyway, they will come back next week!  Then as I sat down, I got another phone call. It was from Jason, another guy who I found but lost contact with. He had moved back to Weingarten and wanted to meet with us that day. He is from China. We met up, and had an incredible lesson. It was amazing, and he said the prayer at the end. That was the first time he had ever prayed. It was a very neat experience. We will meet with him a few times a week. On thursday we will go over and help him put together all his furniture, and then he will cook us chinese food. I am so excited! :-) 

He has a TON of interest. I am so excited to get to meet with him. It was a huge miracle that he called. And another miracle, is that he moved into an apartment which is rigth around the corner from our GML David. ( They are nearly the same age) I AM SO EXCITED!  That was huge miracle. Huge Miracle. Exactly what we needed. And because he lives so close, he will be able to come to church easily on sunday, and I can imagine him really enjoying it. 

That is all I really have time to write about... But I wish you all a fantastic week!

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

A really weird week... But we had General Conference! :-)

My time is very limited for this e-mail, but, this week was very weird. Two back to back exchanges, a National holiday and General Conference...

Monday, was a normal P-day, with the exception that I made Mussaman curry for the Buchanans. :-) I found a little Asian shop here in Ravensburg and have been in heaven ever since. This time it is legitimately a Massaman curry, as opposed to a red curry with similar contents. :-). It wasn't the best curry that I have made, seeing as their stove is a bit more efficient than ours and I overcooked it a bit... but It was still good and fun to make. I still can't help but laugh how I come here to Germany on a German speaking mission, and learn to make Thai food. Something about that just seems ironic. I have learned how to make German food as well, and love German food, but I guess since I still don't get Thai that often, I get way excited about it... Weird I know. I have also come up with my own spaghetti Bolognese sauce. I have really gotten in to cooking since I have been, and enjoy it WAY too much, too bad as a missionary I can't make half the things that I want to make because of lack of time...

Anyway, that was a random tangent, later that night we met with Marko, who is from Croatia, he called us a few days earlier returning my call that I had made about 2 months earlier. He is funny, I don't know if we will be able to teach him however... he has a really short attention span. Its fun though ;-). 

Tuesday we had district meeting here, then I went to Dornbirn on exchange. Long story short the exchange wasn't so good because we had no time. It was WAY too short. We only had an 30 minutes that we could do something before the English class they teach then we helped the other Elders out with a lesson. During the 30 minutes how ever I saw someone who I met last year and had given him a Book of Mormon. I talked to him for a good 10 minutes or so, then he said "I have something for you" He went up stairs and brought down a blanket still in packaging. He gave to me as a gift. That was neat. One of the jobs he did was maintaining the machines to make these blankets, they are worth nearly 50 Euro, but he gave it to me. That was really neat. It was fun talking with him, and I hope the Elders will stop by every now and again to see how he and his wife and kids are doing. He works from 4 am till about 6 pm  (two different Jobs) everyday, so he doesn't have much time to meet with us sadly...Next morning we studied and exchanged back. :-( 

Not what I wanted to do, but I couldn't change anything, from that exchange, Elder Moon went with me back to Ravensburg and we had the second exchange. That was a blast. Elder Moon went to Pleasant Grove High School, and though we didn't know each other we have a lot of mutual friends and its fun working together. We had a really really good rhythm working together in teaching and finding and talked to 3 people who would like to meet with us more. :-) It was great.

Thursday was a German's unification day. TOTALLY KILLED OUR WEEKEND. Holidays are taken very seriously here. Everything closes, and everyone goes home and spends the day with their family. Something that I think is really cool. But they don't like anything to disrupt that. So all the appointments fell through, and we couldn't go door to door, 1) because that is rude and doesn't reflect well on the church, and 2) we just get yelled at. But there is no one on the street. Sweet. We decided to move Weekly Planning to Thursday because it would be more effective. Then we went and left notes and some less actives houses inviting them to Watch General Conference with us. 

Friday. Because Thursday was a holiday Friday became a "Bruckentag" A day in which most people take off to be with there families for an extended weekend. we had 4 appointments lined up that day. Meet with Derick (member), Frau Kassner (potential), Justice and Christine, and Luhz (new investigator as of last week). Derick went just fine. Frau Kassner fell out, then we stopped by on a member in the area which no one had been able to meet with for a long time, and she was there! She invited us in and we talked with her for a bit, and made out an appointment to come back with the Buchanans to visit her. That was a huge tender mercy. The appointment with Luhz also fell out, but we will hopefully make that up some time this week. 

Saturday was LOOOOONG. We spent 4 hours biking around in the rain visiting every Investigator and Member we could to invite them all to General Conference. We almost were able to meet with Sylvester, a friend of Justice (Justice called us once from that phone, and I saved the number, and later realized it belonged to someone else). But he didn't have time, but said he would come to General Conference on Sunday. We obviously watched General Conference that evening and really enjoyed it.  :-)

Sunday, we biked around for 2 hours inviting others to watch general conference before entering into a 6 hour back to back General Conference Marathon. (Elder Buchanan's idea) Elder Wasden handled it well, but I was BEAT. None of the people that we had talked to/invited came. They may have watched it online, I hope so. I know one who was really excited about it, and I am pretty sure that he watched it, but no one else sadly. .-( 

But something really neat that happened that I want to specifically mention (having already mentioned the story of talking to sister Schmelz) was a cool story from Saturday night. Elder Wasden and I have decided that every night (as long as it is before 9 pm) we would talked to 5 or so people on the street or until 9, depending on what the plans were. That night we got back to the apartment at 8.15 or so and had planned to eat dinner, so we first went and walked around talking to people. There weren't very many, but we tried anyway. It was a long day, I was tired, and a bit sad because things that past few days were rough. I wanted to find someone. So I prayed for a miracle. 

Just then a car drove past and pulled up near a sign to park. I walked past and waved at the driver he waved back, but I didn't want to awkwardly stand there and wait for him to get out, so I was just going to keep walking and talk to someone else. When I got the feeling to turn around walk back and talk to him anyway. He still wasn't out of his car but I did it anyway. As expected it was a bit awkward, especially because he was parked somewhat illegally and I looked like a Police officer... but once I cleared that up we had a neat conversation with him and his wife. 

They are from Cameroon and speak English really well. I invited them to General Conference, they said they would come, we exchanged phone numbers and that was it. Exactly what I wanted, to find someone that night, and I prayed for it,and right there my prayer was answered. It was a really neat. He couldn't make it after all, but we will go visit him around the weekend hopefully and teach him a bit about the church :-). 

I have said it before, but God really truly hears and answers our Prayers. I know it. I have felt it, and seen it. He is there for us, and wants to help us through the hard times. I am grateful to be here and spread the gospel as a missionary!

I wish you all a great week!

love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen